Billionaire Yuskau Maezawa launches to International Space Station in first space tour

Japanese billionaire Yuskau Maezawa, accompanied by two others, launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, December 8. Boarding a Russian ‘Soyuz MS-20’ spacecraft, the trio including Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Maezawa’s assistant and a film producer, Yozo Hirano lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. With the launch, the trend of space tourism has resumed as it is the first commercial expedition through the Russian spacecraft after a 12-year hiatus. “The resumption of these kinds of cosmonautics is the result of cooperation between Roscosmos and Space Adventures”, said the Russian space agency. 

Roscosmos informed about the launch via Twitter and updated about the post-launch situation. The solar panels and the antennas of the spacecraft are nominally deployed and the docking to the space station is expected to begin at 6:30 pm (IST). 

A space trip worth $88m

Although the price of Maezawa’s space trip was not much known about, BBC reported that the billionaire paid $88 million for his first visit to space. Maezawa, who is the founder of Japan’s largest clothing retail company Zozotown, is ranked the 30th richest person in Japan with a net worth of $1 billion.

Maezawa’s stay aboard the space station will last for 12 days and the billionaire plans to do a 100 things when he gets to the space station. Maezawa’s assistant Hirano has been assigned the job to document his journey from the training sessions to the ISS will be uploaded on Maezawa’s official YouTube channel. In a press briefing held on Tuesday, Maezawa expressed his excitement before heading to space. “I'm in a very emotional state right now. I feel like a schoolboy before the exam. I really want to look at the Earth from space, swim in zero gravity and experience how space changes people, how I will change in zero gravity", he said as per Roscosmos.

The tourists reportedly underwent three months of rigorous training for this space trip at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia’s Star City, which also was one of a kind experience as per Maezawa. The 46-year-old’s current space voyage is just a beginning as he has already bought the tickets to the Moon in 2023, which will be carried out on a SpaceX rocket.